The CIF-Southern Section swimming finals should be pressure-packed for Pasadena Poly’s Andrew Saeta. The senior holds the CIF-SS Division II record for the 100 backstroke, he’s won the event the past two years, and he’s the top seed heading into Saturday’s event.

He’s also the top seed heading into the 200 freestyle.

But pressure? No, Saeta said, it’s time to perform. The changes in his daily routine have taken that pressure off.

“It’s my senior year, and most people have senioritis,” he said. “I’m not letting senioritis get in front of my goals.

“In high school swimming, it’s an ego thing. When you have a good time in club, they say, `Good job.’ In high school, people are amazed at your times.”

But the pressure went off when Saeta’s coach at his previous club team, California Aquatics, decided to call it quits in January, and Saeta decided to go down the street from Poly to swim, for Swim Pasadena at Pasadena City College.

Saeta hopes that change will put an exclamation point on his high school career before heading to Stanford, where he has received a swimming scholarship.

Taking two titles will certainly be difficult, though Saeta has come close before. He finished second to La Ca ada’s Ian Mirisola twice in the 200 individual medley the past two years. He would have been the favorite in the event this year, with Mirisola graduated, but he’s not in the 200 IM. He’ll instead be swimming in the 200 free.

“It really has been a year full of changes,” he said. “It’s really been two different (club) coaching styles.

“The intensity isn’t different, it’s the amount of swimming we do for coach (Terry) Stoddard. At my old club, we didn’t have a lot of time in the pool because of time limits and such. Now, I do a lot more yardage. I’m a lot stronger in the freestyle.

“Coach Stoddard has whipped me into shape.”

That leads into a highly anticipated 200 free on Saturday. Six of the top 16 swimmers are from the West San Gabriel Valley and a seventh is a Swim Pasadena teammate. The CIF-SS record of 1:38.23, set 26 years ago by Upland’s Jeff Kostoff, who swam at Stanford, is certainly in doubt – Saeta qualified for the event with the top seeded time of 1:39.95.

“It’s going to be a good race,” Saeta said. “I’m going for the record; it would be cool, because I’m going to school where (Kostoff) went to school.”

Saeta will be facing several friends in the race. There’s good friend Chase Bloch of Oaks Christian, whose time was .06 seconds slower than Saeta’s. And Swim Pasadena teammates Karol Markowski of Arcadia (1:40.71) and Sharif Aloui of Crescenta Valley (1:40.96). There’s also La Ca ada’s Josh Renfro, who has the sixth-fastest time (1:42.93); San Marino’s James Gillette, who has the ninth-fastest time (1:43.33); La Ca ada’s Christian Renfro, who has the 13th-fastest time (1:45.35); and Daniel Adamczyk of San Marino, who has the 16th-fastest time (1:45.61).

“I see how (Markowski and Aloui) train against each other,” Saeta said. “And then there’s my good friend from Oaks Christian.”

In a dual meet earlier this season, Saeta beat Markowski in both the 200 and 500 frees.

But in his signature event, the 100 back, Saeta will try to better his record time of 48.94, set last year. He’s the division’s top seed with a time of 50.87.

The Division IV finals will get under way at 6 tonight at Mt. SAC, and will feature teams from Gabrielino, La Salle and Maranatha. The Division I finals, featuring Flintridge Sacred Heart, hit the pool at 6 p.m. Friday; the Division II finals, featuring the Almont League teams, will swim at 10 a.m. Saturday; and the Division II finals, which features teams from the Pacific, Prep and Rio Hondo leagues, will be at 4 p.m. Saturday. Division I, II and III finals are tentatively scheduled to take place at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

No matter his performance in the finals, though, or even in next week’s Masters Meet, if he qualifies, Saeta’s accomplishments will probably live in the Poly record books for a long time. Panthers coach Ryan Katsuyama calls this season “amazing.”

Saeta is limited to swimming in only a certain number of events, but if Saeta could swim in five events on Saturday, he would be the top seed in each of them. In addition to his times in the 200 free and 100 back, he would be the top seed in the 50 free (20.96), 100 free (48.27) and 500 free (4:31.67). In fact, he’s a part of all 11 records set in the Poly pool – albeit the pool was completed during his four-year career.

That’s eight individual records and three relay records. Of those times, four have earned All-America consideration: the 50, 100, 200 and 500 frees. And he did them with career-best times.

“He is swimming faster than I’ve ever seen him swim,” Katsuyama said.

“He’s a kid who loves challenges, and in a few meets this year he has really stepped up to accept the challenge.”

That club change has been very noticeable to the longtime Poly coach. Saeta helped the Panthers to their third consecutive Prep League title, eighth in the last 12 years, and the team to a 9-1 dual-meet record.

“I think the primary change has been the fact that he’s training with many of the area’s top swimmers,” Katsuyama said. “When you train day in and day out with swimmers of that caliber, it will make you better, and we’ve seen that out of Andrew this season.”

Saeta admits he was worried about the change initially. He was afraid that too much freestyle work would hamper his backstroke. But Stoddard quickly eased his mind.

“He told me to just turn over and swim on my back when everyone else was doing freestyle,” he said.

Saeta had another change, too. For the first time he played water polo, and the Panthers went to the CIF-SS semifinals.

“I had a blast, and those water polo workouts kicked my butt,” he said.

It helped that Saeta is tall and left handed. He fit in naturally with the Panthers’ offensive scheme, and quickly garnered a starting role.